Let’s Move

By Guest Contributor Hope Goins

According to the White House official website, Michelle Obama is first and foremost Sasha and Malia’s mom. During her time as First Lady, however, Mrs. Obama has shown a genuine concern for America’s children, and most recently has become the leader in America’s fight against childhood obesity, which affects approximately one third of America’s children.

On February 9, 2010, President Obama issued a memorandum naming a task force on childhood obesity. In this memorandum, the President stated that First Lady Obama will lead a national public awareness effort to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity. This public awareness effort by First Lady Obama is Let’s Move. With Let’s Move, Mrs. Obama is not only partnering with senior executive branch officials, but also community leaders, teachers, physicians, and other parents throughout the country to change the lifestyles of America’s children.

One of the goals of Let’s Move is to help children become more physically active through vigorous play and moderate exercise. Mrs. Obama is working with communities to assist them in developing and modernizing playgrounds, community centers, and even basic walking and biking routes to provide children with access to physical activity. Furthermore, Let’s Move will be implementing changes to the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge. The Challenge will now reward children who try to achieve physical activity on a regular basis.

Another goal of Let’s Move is to promote healthy eating in schools. Most of America’s children consume over half their daily calories at school. Hence, having healthy meals at school is imperative to fostering a generation of children who have healthier lifestyles. Consequently, as a part of the Let’s Move campaign, Mrs. Obama is visiting schools across the nation and meeting with food service providers, vendors, teachers, and principals to encourage them to not only serve healthier foods in schools but also teach children about nutrition and the benefits of having a healthy eating regimen and exercise.

As a working mother, Mrs. Obama is no stranger to the complexities of maintaining a work life balance while attempting to raise healthy children. From her own experience, she knows that making healthy dinners and encouraging children to make better choices about food at home can be challenging. Hence, Let’s Move addresses issues of having healthy in home food selections for children by exploring strategies to increase access to healthy, affordable food and eliminate food deserts throughout the country. Let’s Move will be available to provide parents with toolkits and recipes on how to make healthy food that children will enjoy. Let’s Move will even encourage child participation in making and selecting food.

Childhood obesity is a national issue that can be reconciled with changes such as physical activity, healthy food selections, and nutrition lessons. Mrs. Obama and Let’s Move will help the Administration tackle this problem through the national campaign. For more information about Let’s Move, visit www.letsmove.gov or check out the Let’s Move Facebook page at www.facebook.com/letsmove.

Hope Goins currently serves as Counsel to the House Committee on Homeland Security. She is an alumna of Tougaloo College and the University of Arkansas.